Gotham One-Shots
by Shian1998
Summary: My collection of one-shots set within the universe of the Gotham TV series. Possible spoilers if you aren't up to date.
1. Birth of the Bat of Gotham

**1\. Birth of the Bat of Gotham:**

**Hi everyone. This is where I'll be uploading all my one-shots set in the Gotham TV series. Please take the time to read and tell me what you think. If you have any feedback I could use, I would definitely appreciate that. Though no rude comments please. :)**

**Also, if you are not caught up with the series, some of these could potentially have spoilers, so be aware of that.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Gotham TV series.**

—

_The Waynes approached the alleyway's entrance on their way home from watching Mark of Zorro at the Monarch Theatre, laughing as they debated the film._

"_Oh come on, Tom, it wasn't that bad," Martha insisted to her husband._

"_Oh no?" Thomas playfully responded, Bruce laughing along with him. "Childish drivel."_

"_The acting was fine," Martha defended, "the music was lovely. What about you Bruce?"_

"_Sorry Mom," Bruce sniggered. "I agree with Dad. It was kinda lame."_

"_Kinda lame?" Thomas scoffed. "There's no such word as kinda lame. It was totally lame."_

"_Yeah," Bruce agreed, laughing._

"_You two," Martha responded, laughing, as they saw a man walking from the opposite end of the alley, "so judgemental -"_

_In a split second, all laughter and banter stopped, and Bruce's feeling of joy and happiness suddenly turned to horror and fear. One second, the family had been walking through the alley joking with one another, the next they stood there, Bruce's mother suddenly clutching him, as a masked man threatened them with a gun._

"_Stay calm, Bruce," Thomas said, keeping his voice steady._

"_Give me your money!" the masked man demanded, pointing his gun at Thomas. Bruce glanced at his father to see what he would do._

"_No problem," Thomas calmly said, handing his wallet over to the man._

"_Good cooperating," the man said, before turning his gun to Martha and demanding her pearl necklace. Bruce's mother let go of him to take off her necklace and handed it over, the man roughly grabbing it and causing some pearls to break off and fall._

"_Easy," Thomas calmly said. Bruce felt his mother hold him again as he watched the man, praying he'd leave them alone now he had what he wanted._

_After a tense moment, to Bruce's shock and horror, the man fired his gun. Bruce gasped and looked to his left, watching his father fall to the ground, blood spraying from the wound in his chest. Before Bruce could recover from his shock, he heard another gunshot, prompting him to turn and see his mother also collapse, blood spraying from her chest wound._

_The pearls continued to bounce on the pavement._

_Bruce turned back to see the gunman aiming at him. They watched each other for a moment, Bruce trembling in fear, before the man lowered his gun and walked past him, starting to run away._

_Bruce stood there for a moment, unable to process what had just happened, before turning and looking down, seeing his mother lying in a pool of her own blood. "Mom!" Bruce exclaimed, kneeling down and frantically shaking her, desperate for a response, but she continued to remain motionless, glassy-eyed. "Mom!"_

_Bruce turned and quickly moved to his father, clutching his blood-stained shirt and calling "Dad! Dad!" His father's eyes moved slowly towards him, before stilling._

_Bruce slowly stood up, looking in horror at his parents' blood that now stained his hand, not wanting to believe what had just happened. Moments later, the traumatised boy fell to his knees, looked up, and screamed in horror and grief, before breaking down and sobbing._

_He didn't know how long he sat there, crying and shaking while his parents's bodies lay either side of him. It somehow felt like a very short time and an eternity simultaneously. He was wrecked with grief, disbelief, fear, trauma and rage. After some time, he heard voices before feeling someone wrap a blanket around him and lead him to sit on a nearby staircase. He looked around and realised someone had called the police, seeing cops examining the area and laying blankets over the corpses. A few minutes later, one cop came over to him and started asking questions, but Bruce was still in shock and could barely process what the man asked him. Finally, the cop made a frustrated noise and walked away, leaving the boy alone._

_Some time later, the still shaking boy sensed another presence approach him, though he didn't look up. "My name's James Gordon. I'm a detective," he heard the new man say. "What's your name?" Bruce tried to compose himself enough to answer, but was unable to, still too distraught. "It's okay," Detective Gordon assured him, "you don't have to talk."_

"_Bruce," he finally answered after a moment. Looking up, he saw Detective Gordon, noticing that this man seemed kinder than the previous cop. "My name is Bruce Wayne."_

_Detective Gordon knelt down in front of him and asked "Can you tell me what happened, Bruce?" Bruce tried to work out what to say, thinking back to what happened. The gun in his face, his parents trying to comfort him, the gunshots, the blood, the glassy stare in their dead eyes. It became too much for the boy, and he started sobbing again._

_As he cried, he felt the detective move to sit next to him. A moment later, Gordon started speaking again. "When I was about your age, a drunk driver hit our car. Killed my Dad. I was right next to him." At this, Bruce slowly moved his head to look up, at the man who he now realised could relate to him. Detective Gordon leaned closer and whispered "I know how you feel right now. But I promise you, however dark and scary the world might be right now, there will be light. There will be light, Bruce."_

_Feeling emboldened by the speech, Bruce began telling the detective what happened, still sniffling as he did so. "We just got out of the movies. We were walking through the alley to catch an uptown cab and, a man came out of the shadows. He was tall, with a black mask, and he had a hat, and gloves, and shiny shoes. He took my Dad's wallet, a-and my Mom's necklace. And-and he shot them, for no reason." A sudden feeling of guilt struck him, for just standing there and not doing anything to stop it. "I should have done something! But I was too scared."_

"_There was nothing you could have done to stop what happened," Gordon insisted. "But there is something you can do now." Bruce looked up towards him. "You can be strong. Be strong. I promise you, I will find the man who did this."_

—

Bruce opened his eyes and looked over the darkened city from the rooftop he stood upon, still thinking about that fateful night so many years ago. The night that had changed everything. For him, and for this city. The night that started the city's decent into violence, chaos, and madness.

As Bruce gazed around him at the surrounding buildings, he reflected on everything that had happened to this place over the past few years, as the city plunged further and further into hell. There had once been a time when he had been a naive and happy kid, with a good life and having no idea of the darkness that infected his home. Then his parents were murdered in an alley, and the city he loved suddenly seemed cold, hostile, inhospitable, and corrupt. And Bruce himself had changed, becoming obsessed with finding the monster that destroyed his life. As his investigation developed, he unearthed more and more corruption within the city, revealing an entire conspiracy involved in the murder. From the GCPD, to the various crime families, to his own company, to Hugo Strange and Pinewood Farms, to the Court of Owls.

He had once thought that, if he could discover the ones responsible for his parents' murder, he could find peace for himself and make progress in fixing the broken city, as he believed the loss of his parents' influence was what allowed the city to become corrupt. Later, he learned that the problem was far bigger than just his parents' murder, that the city had always been corrupt and evil. Gotham had been ruled by crime bosses for decades, with the ineffectual and corrupt GCPD acting as little more than their puppets, and the majority of the lower class residents struggling to survive on a day to day basis, particularly those on the streets like Selina and Ivy had been. The problem became even more evident to Bruce when he finally confronted the killer he had been searching for. He had been hoping to find a remorseless monster that he could kill to avenge his parents. Instead he found a tired old man, who had also been a victim of Gotham's corruption.

"_just like Gotham made me,"_

"_A man gets tired, of doing wrong and going unpunished."_

The city itself was the problem, Bruce had come to realise, not just a few people. Gotham fed on the souls who lived within it, turning countless of its residents into the worst versions of themselves. Bruce had seen this happen with so many people, such as Ivy and Barbara. Even some of the true monsters, like Jerome Valeska, had been born from tragedy. And those who despite everything tried to avoid crossing the line, such as himself, Jim Gordon and Selina, had still been infected by the darkness from the city. And many others had lost their lives at the hands of the city's corrupt, such as Karen Jennings, the Winthrops, and the many refugees in Haven.

And if the corruption of Gotham City hadn't already been bad enough on its own, the murder of Bruce's parents paved the way for things to truly spiral out of control. The many crime families became far more earnest in their attempts to destroy each other, while new players who had lost their sanity rose from the streets to introduce the people of Gotham to a new brand of chaos and madness. Monsters such as the infamous Maniax, the vengeful Galavans, the insane Valeskas, the mad scientist Hugo Strange, and the genocidal Court of Owls, League of Shadows and Ra's al Ghul terrorised the city and subjected it to increasingly horrific disasters, from senseless massacres all the way to attempts of city-wide destruction. Culminating in the apocalyptic months of Gotham being cut off from the world as a no man's land, soon followed by the war for Gotham instigated by Dorrance and Walker.

Gotham City had been tearing itself apart for years, disaster after disaster inflicting more and more devastation. It was little wonder, Bruce thought, that everyone was becoming jaded and many had begun losing hope that things would get better, and giving up on doing the right thing.

"_I see people losing the will to do good. People I love. What if we don't make it out of this?"_

Gotham City was sick and corrupt. Vast portions of it were under the control of ruthless crime bosses like the Penguin, while madmen such as Scarecrow, Firefly, Fries, Tetch, and many others ran rampant throughout the city and terrorised it. And despite Jim Gordon's gradual and relatively successful attempts to clean up the GCPD and turn it into a true force of justice, they were not able to keep the corrupt forces under control for long.

The city needed help. Someone else had to rise up to defend it. A dark knight to chase back the shadows. A symbol of hope for those who were suffering.

The years since Bruce lost his parents had not been kind to him. His investigations had exposed him to so much of Gotham's corruption. Many had tried to kill him or those he cared about. Some had tried to control him. But over the years his battles had tested him, hardened him, tested him, made him stronger. Until he was finally strong enough to do something. To fight back against his many enemies. The chaos and violence of this city had shown him what he was meant to do.

"_Out of this crucible of blood and fire will rise the dark knight that your city needs."_

"_The choice is now yours. Stay Bruce Wayne, or accept your destiny. Become Gotham's dark knight."_

"_Gotham is not your responsibility."_

"_I'm making it mine."_

So that's what he was going to do. Bruce would be Gotham's dark knight. With the help of his allies, he would fight against the criminals and terrorists within the city, and he'd show the good people there that there were still some who would defend them, and that one day the cycle of violence would come to an end.

"_You can't kill murder. You can't get revenge on evil. You can only begin to fight such things by not doing them. And you can only fight them where they live; not just at Wayne Enterprises, in the streets, in the slums, and the bad parts of town."_

"_I remember the night we met. You told me the world may seem dark."_

"_But there is light."_

Bruce suddenly snapped to attention as, amongst the rest of the city's sounds, he heard a familiar and bone-chilling, blood-curdling laugh. Bruce grimaced as he thought about the depraved monster, now calling himself the Joker, who had tortured and slaughtered so many people, laughing all while he did so, and had also developed a twisted obsession with him.

"_Do you feel it? The connection between us?"_

"_I'm the answer to your life's question! Without me you're just a joke, without a punchline."_

"_We will create a legacy in this city. Gotham falls, we rise. Together."_

Preparing himself for the upcoming fight, the Batman leaped from the rooftop to stop the Joker's latest atrocity.


	2. A Crippled Cat

**2\. A Crippled Cat:**

**Here's my next Gotham one-shot. This one is set when Selina wakes up from her coma after the end of season four. I came up with this one-shot well before season five started, though I didn't get around to writing it until now. I'm aware that in canon it didn't happen this way at all, but I still wanted to write this scenario. Hope it's good.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gotham, Alfred or Selina.**

—

Selina suddenly awakened with a jolt, gasping in pain as she felt the surface she lay on rock side to side. For a moment she looked around, feeling confused and trying to remember what had happened.

"Easy, Miss Kyle," she heard a familiar voice from her side, where she saw Alfred sitting and watching her with concern in his eyes. "Take it easy there. You're still recovering from your surgery."

Surgery, Selina thought, prompting her memories to come back. That's right, she'd been in the hospital. After getting shot by the lunatic Jeremiah. She looked around the room, expecting to see white sterilised walls around her and Bruce sitting by her side. She quickly realised that was not where she was now, after seeing completely unfamiliar surroundings and feeling the room sway some more.

"Where are we?" Selina asked Alfred.

"We're on one of the evac boats leaving Gotham," Alfred responded. "We've almost reached the harbour."

"Evac boat?" Selina asked. "Why? I thought Gordon and Bullock got all the bombs."

Alfred sighed, before explaining what had happened. "Before attacking you, Jeremiah had made an alliance with Ra's al Ghul." Selina inwardly shuddered at the thought of those particular two dangerous psychopaths working together. "Ra's engineered Jeremiah's escape and took Bruce, along with all the bombs. Miss Keen, Tabitha, Penguin and I rescued Bruce and killed Ra's, but Jeremiah succeeded in using the bombs to blow up all the bridges connecting Gotham to the mainland. The government has ordered the city to be evacuated, though most of the gangs are still there and carving up territory. Jim Gordon and some of the GCPD stayed behind to attempt to get things back under control."

Selina lay silent for a moment, processing the horrifying information she had just been told. After a moment, she asked "If Ra's is dead, then Bruce killed him again, right?" After Alfred nodded, she continued, "How is he handling it this time? Really hope he's not going to act like a douchebag again. Where is he anyway?" She looked around again, wondering where he was. "He promised he'd be here when I woke up."

Alfred grimaced, then answered, "He stayed behind to help Gordon protect Gotham."

"HE WHAT?!" Selina shouted, fury consuming her. "The city is in more chaos than before, we're all evacuating, and that bastard stayed there?! Why aren't we with him at least?"

"The hospital was evacuating all its patients," Alfred explained, "and he wanted me to make sure you were kept safe."

"Yet you let him stay there," Selina responded in disbelief. "How could you do that? You're supposed to be his guardian."

"Selina, you know as well as I do that when Bruce has his mind set on something, he's going to go through with it no matter what anyone says," Alfred explained patiently.

"Maybe you give in to his demands so easily, but not me," Selina said angrily. "Take me back."

"Miss Kyle," Alfred started, "we can't-"

"I'm going back," Selina declared. "I'm going to find him, tear him a new one for not keeping his promise and being so stupid, and then I'm going to make sure he doesn't get himself killed." Selina then moved to swing herself up from the bed.

Only, her legs didn't move, resulting in her nearly face planting before Alfred caught her and moved her back.

This unsettled her, but she ignored it and tried to get up again. But her legs still refused to move. Searching for the problem, she touched her legs to see if anything was hurt.

Her legs did not hurt.

They also did not feel anything.

A horrible feeling appeared deep down in her, but Selina tried to deny what it could mean. She looked over to Alfred, who seemed unusually grave, and asked him, "Why can't I feel my legs?"

Alfred opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it, unable to bring himself to answer. He just sat there, concern and worry clear in his eyes.

Selina's bad feeling worsened, but she yet again tried to quash it and repeated, "Why can't I feel my legs?"

"Selina," Alfred said gently. "The bullet. It hit-"

"No!" Selina denied desperately, starting to panic. "It didn't. It couldn't have. Because-" Selina couldn't finish, feeling overwhelmed with panic and helplessness due to the realisation of what had happened to her.

If it was true, she would never be able to walk again. She'd never be able to fight again, never climb and jump buildings again, never be able to look after herself in any way. She'd be completely dependent on others for the rest of her life, which went against every survival instinct she'd ever learned.

If she was truly paralysed, then all of her skills were now completely useless, she thought fearfully. As she fell into despair, she realised that she was now completely powerless to do anything at all to protect herself or any of those she cared about.


End file.
